Carrefour is an international supermarket group headquartered in France with a global network of supermarkets. It is the second largest retail group in the world in terms of revenue and sales figures. Carrefour operates mainly in the European Union, Brazil and Argentina, but also has shops in North Africa and Asia. The group was created by Marcel Fournier and Louis Defforey and grew into a chain from its first sales outlet. The first Carrefour store opened on June 3, 1957, in suburban Annecy. The Carrefour group pioneered the concept of a hypermarket, which are a large supermarket and a department store under the same roof. They opened their first hypermarket in 1962 in Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, near Paris in France. Carrefour has opened its first hypermarket outside France in 1969 in Belgium. In 1999 it merged with Promodès, one of its major competitors in the French and European market and was ranked first in Europe and second in the world. As of 2005, it was the biggest retailer in Europe and the second largest worldwide with a consolidated sales of £ 62,409 billion, £ 186 billion of market consolidation and 436 000 employees.